


In Another World

by Libraflyter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, WandaVision (TV)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, rebuilding after loss, what if Wanda was not alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 09:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30019518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Libraflyter/pseuds/Libraflyter
Summary: Wanda’s grief shatters her.  In one world, she manifests the Hex.  In another, she does not.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 48





	In Another World

There is a woman crying in the foundations of the unbuilt house. Though crying is too small a word for the pure grief and pain that echoes with every wail.

In one world that grief is denied and replaced by a dream that draws in all unfortunate enough to be near. In this one - maybe she has yet to come fully into her power. Maybe her pain does not pull her under enough to reach into the unconscious possibility she wields. Maybe a woman who in another world was forced into the mold of Dottie Jones and here is still simply Sarah Proctor walks by and sees the weeping woman. Maybe she comes over and rests a gentle hand on a shoulder and tells her to let it out, that it is okay to not be okay.

(In any world, public grief would not have been an uncommon sight in the past five years.)

Maybe the red power that has begun to gather fades at human contact. There is still emptiness and burning sorrow, but the woman follows Sarah home. There is tea and kind words and no questions. In the silence, Sarah talks about her daughter, about losing her daughter’s father years ago and the No that still comes to her at night. (Sarah loves Harold; loves the family she has built since. But that never erases the loss). Maybe there is healing in hearing how someone else remade her world.

The woman introduces herself as Wanda, as an Avenger. Explains the home her lover left her and the burial she’s been denied. Something like relief sparks at the sight of Sarah’s anger, at the validation Vision deserves to be laid to rest. The acknowledgement of the wrong.

Maybe by the time Sarah’s daughter comes home from school, Wanda is being settled in the guest room and told to rest. 

Maybe she only stays a night, and goes off to join the Avengers again and throw herself into saving the world, because the world will always need saving. 

But maybe she stays.

Maybe the empty lot becomes a house and Wanda makes it a home. Maybe Sarah introduces her to the other women on the street (a coven in all but name). They welcome her, bring her into a sisterhood that channels the quiet power of community and companionship. They let her be the widow she is.

Maybe she finds another friend in her neighbor Ralph, who is not her brother but sometimes reminds her of Pietro at his silliest. (Maybe Ralph was once a twin too; maybe he dreams of a world that stands still when he runs.)

Maybe in the weeks after her arrival, she complains of nausea in mornings and a tiredness beyond grief. Maybe months later (the nine months she lived past the last night with Vision, the last night he held her in his arms) Wanda delivers her impossible twins.

(She will always be the Scarlet Witch.)

Maybe there is no perfect happily ever after. 

Maybe there is an empty grave with a marble headstone and flowers that never need to be refreshed, where a single mother brings her sons to tell them of their father.

Maybe the outside world intrudes as the greedy try to take what is not theirs - make a weapon out of a metal man, steal magic from another’s soul, take apart children who are wishes made real. 

Maybe the Scarlet Witch will destroy the world. Maybe the secret is that she knows someone’s world is destroyed every day. And what matters more is what they build from the ashes.

Maybe there is a woman in Westview who is not alone. Who has friends and family and a home to grow old in.


End file.
